About Me

What is it about a piece of wood that no matter who holds it, it stirs emotions within them? Is it the fact that wood remains alive, even after it is reduced from log to lumber to something lovely?
The goal of Wisp Woods is create objects in wood that, when you see them, you can't help but smile. And to create things that are will last, so you can smile your whole life through. If I can create these things from reclaimed materials, all the better for all of us.
~ Wisp Woods ~
Artisan Crafted ~ Real Wood ~ Home Accents

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Saturday, August 30, 2008

Tuned-Up Tool - Antique Hand Planes

I spent most the day fixing up a couple of old hand planes. Both came from Threads of Memories in Brookings, SD. Of all the hand planes that I have tuned up, these were the easiest by far. They were very clean when I got them. They were obviously owned by a caring woodworker.

The planes are a No. 4 and a No. 5.

My plan for the No. 4 was to turn it into a finely tuned smoothing plane, with a high bevel angle and a small mouth opening. This plane, although it is old, is superior to my new No. 4 is many ways. The most important, IMO, is the "Bedroock" style frog assembly. I took the extra time today to tune the frog contact points with lapping compound, which makes the tool more solid.

I did already have a No. 5 plane and I really love the size of this plane for general work. The reason I bought this one, was to turn it into a "scrub" plane.

This simply means that the iron is ground with a 3/32" curve in the blade. This allows you to take deeper scalloped cuts, which can be left on the surface to show a hand-worked look, or easliy smoothed out with my new No. 4.

I feel that I have a really good set of planes at this time. My collection now includes the following, which are all Stanley, except the wood based plane.